Dr. Saturday

Tommy Tuberville to leave Texas Tech for Cincinnati in a shocking move

Most of the coaching carousel moves we've seen so far have generally made sense. Bret Bielema going from Wisconsin to Arkansas was surprising, but at least it could be rationalized.

The news that Tommy Tuberville had left Texas Tech to replace Butch Jones at Cincinnati was the first real head-scratcher of the coaching moves we've seen the last couple weeks. This one is tough to figure out.

Tuberville has spent his entire football life in the south. He played at Southern Arkansas and all of his jobs as an assistant were in the south. He spent four years as the head coach at Ole Miss, 10 mostly successful seasons at Auburn and then the last three seasons at Texas Tech. Those seasons weren't wildly successful, but it didn't seem like Tuberville's seat was incredibly hot either.

When reports started coming in that Tuberville was going to Cincinnati - most prominently by @footballscoop and @coachingsearch on Twitter and confirmed by others including Pat Forde of Yahoo! - it was as baffling as any news we're going to hear while coaches play musical chairs this year. At least, we don't assume this one will be topped, though we probably shouldn't be surprised by anything anymore.

For Cincinnati, this was a quick answer to Jones leaving to Tennessee. Tuberville has a long history of fielding good teams, and as long as he quickly figures out how to recruit an area he has no experience in, this should be a very good hire for the Bearcats. Why Tuberville suddenly left Texas Tech for Cincinnati is something that will be speculated on. Maybe he felt that his time was running out at Texas Tech, or didn't feel like he was a great fit there. Maybe he wanted a brand new start. Who knows.

Texas Tech's vacancy should draw some good candidates. The Red Raiders couldn't have figured they would have a coaching search on their hands this month.